Entries by Mark Beardsley

Williams-Sonoma will operate a distribution center from a 1.1-million-square-foot building in the Braselton Commerce Center, thanks in part to tax abatements on the $70 million project.

The Jackson County Industrial Development Authority voted last Friday to begin the process of issuing two sets of bonds for the project. A $58 million bond issue will cover the real property, and a $12 million bond will finance the personal property.

The company has not officially announced its location in Jackson County, but it has advertised a job fair to help the company find some 250 employees.

The financing deal will include a 10-year abatement on all property taxes except school taxes. In the first year, the company will get a 65-percent abatement, and that number will fall by five percent a year for 10 years before being phased out.

“This way, we get more money earlier,” pointed out IDA chairman Scott Martin.

Attorney Daniel Haygood said the company will pay a fixed amount “based on the millage rate as of the day we close.”
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With fears that the area is on the edge of yet another drought that could cause the level of the Bear Creek Reservoir to plummet, the focus of the reservoir owners is laser-like on — whether to extend a boat ramp.
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The Georgia Court of Appeals upheld Judge Joe Booth’s July 14 ruling rejecting a motion by the Upper Oconee Basin Water Authority to dismiss Jackson County’s suit over the capacity of the Bear Creek Reservoir.[Full Story »]

When the four candidates for the Republican nomination for the 47th District seat in the Georgia State Senate made their first joint appearance last Wednesday, taxes and government spending got the lion’s share of attention.

Doug Bower, Oglethorpe County; Shane Coley, Statham; Kelley Gary, Hoschton; and Frank Ginn, Madison County, appeared in a political forum at the Jackson County Area Chamber of Commerce’s breakfast meeting at Jackson EMC May 5.

Money was foremost on everyone’s agenda, particularly taxes and the government use of taxes. Predictably, all four candidates, all Republicans, had little good to say about taxes and taxation — or about government in general.
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